History – Faculty

Bio

A native of Buffalo, New York, Dr. Bolt began teaching at Francis Marion in 2009. He has published articles in American Nineteenth Century History and the Journal of East Tennessee History. For four years, Dr. Bolt served as an Assistant Editor at the James K. Polk Project where he researched, edited, and transcribed documents that appeared in volume 11 and 12 of the Correspondence of James K. Polk. His book, Tariff Wars and the Politics of Jacksonian America, was published by Vanderbilt University Press in 2017. He is also the coauthor of a textbook, The American Road Part I: Travelling the Early American Byways of a New Nation, which was published by Kendall Hunt in 2016.

Education

PhD, University of Tennessee, 2010

Courses Taught: 

• U.S. History to 1877
• U.S. History since 1877
• Economic History of the United States
• United States: Colonial and Revolutionary Periods, 1587-1789
• Civil War America
• U.S. Constitutional History to 1900
• Jacksonian Democracy
• Senior Thesis  

Latin America, World. Part-Time Lecturer in History,

History; U.S. Economic and Former Provost

18th- and 19th-Century Great Britain, Medieval Europe.

FMU Distinguished Professor

Bio

Originally from the former Soviet Union, Dr. Eskridge-Kosmach has taught in Belarus, Canada, and the United States. She has written numerous articles in the field of Eastern European history and U.S.-Eastern European relations, co-authored Tragedy of the Idols of Russian Revolution: Political Portraits of L. Trotsky (Belarussian State University Press, 1994). She is also the  author of Foreign Policy of the USA toward Yugoslavia: Problems and Approaches(Belarussian State University of Education Press, 2003) and Russian Press and the Policy of Russia Towards China in 1881-1904 (Palmetto Publishing Group, 2019).

Education

PhD, Belarusian State University, 1985

Courses Taught: 

• European History since the French Revolution
• Russia and Eastern Europe Europe, 1814-1914
• History of Modern Germany
• Europe in the Era of the World Wars, 1914-1945
• Europe and the World since 1945
• Twentieth Century Communist Societies
• The Holocaust  

Bio

A native of Oklahoma, Dr. Erica Johnson specializes in the history of the Atlantic World. She is author of a monograph, Philanthropy and Race in the Haitian Revolution, part of the Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). She has published articles in The History Teacher, the Southern Quarterly, the Journal of Transnational American Studies, and the Journal of Western Society for French History. Her research interests include race, religion, and revolution in the greater Atlantic World. She is the faculty coordinator for FMU's Universities Studying Slavery initiative.

Education

PhD, Florida State University, 2012

Courses Taught: 

European History to the French Revolution

The Historian's Craft

Medieval Europe

Native American History and Culture

Atlantic World

Bio

Dr. Kaufman, Former Chair of the department is a Francis Marion University Board of Trustees Research Scholar, joined the Francis Marion University staff in 2001. He is the author, co-author, or editor of twelve books on diplomatic, presidential, and military history, including Project Plowshare: The Peaceful Use of Nuclear Explosives in Cold War America (Cornell University Press, 2013), Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party: A Biography of Gerald R. Ford (University Press of Kansas, 2017), and The Environment and International History (Bloomsbury, 2018). Currently, he is working on a comparative history of the Panama and Suez canals.

Education

PhD, Ohio University, 1998

Courses Taught: 

• U.S. History to 1877
• U.S. History since 1877
• The United States in the Era of World War II
• The Vietnam War
• The History of the United States in World Affairs
• U.S. Military History
• The History of the Future    

Biography

Dr. Kennedy joined the Francis Marion University faculty in 2006. He became Chair of the History Department in 2012, and Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, and Director of Graduate Programs in 2016. Dr. Kennedy became the Vice President for Student Life July 2019, then the Director of Honors 2024.

Dr. Kennedy was awarded the Faculty award for Excellence in Teaching 2016.

Dr. Kennedy was the advisor for Alpha Theta Zeta, the FMU chapter of the history honors society, Phi Alpha Theta 2007-2018. During that time, Alpha Theta Zeta was awarded Best Chapter in the Country 10 years in a row.

Dr. Kennedy has presented papers both nationally and internationally, including, Portugal, Hungry and Saint Patrick's College, the Marino Institute in Ireland, and the New England Historical Association. Additionally, he has published a number of book reviews including for the journal Providence: Studies in Western Civilization as well as a book, Genesis of the Rising 1912-1916: A Transformation of Nationalist Opinion (Peter Lang, 2009). His main research interests are in early modern, modern Irish history and the history of the British Empire. When not teaching, Dr. Kennedy enjoys traveling, camping, fishing, hiking, running, kayaking, and spending time with his family.

Education
PhD., University College Cork, National University of Ireland
M.A, Providence College
B.A, Northern Michigan University

Courses Taught: 
European History to the French Revolution
European History since the French Revolution
Medieval Europe
Modern Ireland
The British Empire
Modern British Isles
Europe 1814-1914
Senior Thesis

Originally from Kentucky, Dr. Kirby joined the Francis Marion University faculty in the Fall of 2019. A certified South Carolina Social Studies/History teacher (grades 6-12), Dr. Kirby serves as the Coordinator of Secondary Education in Social Studies Program. He is currently finishing a book on General William Westmoreland. This work will place Westmoreland in the larger context of American military and political history.

Education

PhD, University of Georgia, 2018

Courses Taught:

U.S. History since 1877

The New South, 1865 to present

America in the 1960s

The United States Between the Wars, 1918-1941

The American Civil Rights Movement

The Vietnam War

Social Studies Methods for Secondary Education

Directed Teaching for Student Teachers Completing Their Certification in History (9-12)

Bio

Dr. Nagata joined the History Department in 2005. She is the author of Labor Contracts and Labor Relations in Early Modern Central Japan (Routledge Curzon Press, 2005) and has published numerous articles in the field of East Asian history, with a focus on family life and labor issues in Japan.

In addition to her love of travel, she has a love for music, and is a trained concert violinist. Dr. Nagata plans to reside in Japan for her retirement.

Education

PhD, University of Hawaii, 1996

Courses Taught: 

• Introduction to Modern World History
• History of Traditional East Asia
• History of Modern China
• History of Modern Japan
• History of Family and Gender in Eurasian Perspective
• 20th-Century Communist States
• The Historian's Craft

19th-Century U.S., American West.

Former Chair, Department of History.

FMU Distinguished Professor.

Bio

Dr. Venters began teaching at Francis Marion in 2007. He is a co-author of the award-winning public history study "African Americans in Camden, South Carolina" (2006), No Jim Crow Church: The Origins of South Carolina's Bahá'i Community (University Press of Florida, 2015) and A History of the Bahá'i Faith in South Carolina (The History Press, 2019). He is particularly interested in the history of race, religion, and social change in the United States, as well as issues of rural and urban planning and the intersection of cultural and environmental stewardship. A Pee Dee native, he has lived and traveled extensively in Africa, Central America, and Europe.

Education

PhD, University of South Carolina, 2010

Courses Taught: 

• U.S. History since 1877
• The New South, 1865 to the Present
• History of Black Americans Since 1865
• African History
• South Carolina History